CHAPTER 3. CONCUSSION & SPORT
During more than a decade
playing first grade with the
Sydney Swans, retired Australian
Football League (AFL) star Jude
Bolton experienced several major head
collisions.
He concedes that throughout his
career he prided himself on resilience at
the expense of his brain and once wore
concussion as a badge of honour. “That
meant taking any hits and just getting
up and getting on with it,” Bolton
recalls. “I remember my grandfather
always saying, ‘It’s better to wake up
in an ambulance than to duck out of a
contest.’”
But concern about the long-term
consequences has since made him an
advocate for player welfare. “It was
actually my same grandfather who
then said to me after I sustained two
concussions in one game – and played
the following week – ‘You don’t want to
be a dribbling mess when you’re an old
man’,” Bolton explains. “A brain injury
is not like any other injury. Each head
knock is different and sometimes the
Players’ Perspectives
JUDE BOLTON
RETIRED AFL PLAYER,
SYDNEY SWANS
innocuous ones can be the worst.
“I know that having sustained
multiple concussions puts me in a high-
risk category. I would hate to think
that the way I played may contribute
towards potentially having something
like dementia, CTE or depression later
in my life.”
Bolton emphasises, however, that
he doesn’t want the sport to change.
“AFL is a tough and sometimes brutal
sport that I love,” he says. “I never want
to see the physicality taken from the
game, nor do I ever want families to not
allow their kids to play sport. There are
so many health issues that kids and
adults have just through not being as
active as they should.”
Bolton says better protocols and
increased awareness are important
steps forward and senior players
sitting out of the game for a week,
or not returning to the game after a
concussion, are wonderful examples for
young players to look up to.
He believes science is the key to
improving player safety: “I would love
to see the research be to a point where
we have absolute certainty on the
protocols and that kids, families and
all sporting clubs know what to do if a
concussion is sustained, and have an
ability to limit any long-term effects.
“In the end it is just a game. You only
get one brain.”
“A BRAIN INJURY IS NOT LIKE
ANY OTHER INJURY. EACH
HEAD KNOCK IS DIFFERENT
AND SOMETIMES THE
INNOCUOUS ONES CAN BE
THE WORST.”